Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-05-11
CHEAP LITERATURE.
THE GREAT CHANGES WHICH HAVE
TAKEN PLACE IN THE BUSINESS.
What a Simple Little Machine Has Done
Toward Making Cheap Literature Pos
sible-Wretched Stuff Being Driven
Out of the Market.

HTne,e cheap books continued my friend,
shave made great changes in literature, and
they are destined to make more vet They
themselves have changed, as YOU NAV have
noticed, since they first made their appear
ance. Most of them started out as dime pub
hcatiOus. and for some time they We're sold at
that price. But the price was too low. Even
when the matter of the book was borrowed
from England and cost the publisher nothing,
the expense Of the mechanical work was too
great for such price. Now, as you know,
most of the cheap editions are sold for either
twenty or twenty-five cents This allows a
fair margin of profit to the publisher,
even when he pays the author for his
work. so there is every probability that
the cheap editions will last Perhaps You do
not know how much simple little machine
has done toward making cheap literature DOS
siblt-l mean the machine that binds pam
phIrls With tiny hit OF wire. much faster
ard cheaper than they can I've saved ! see
that some of the publishers, presumably
these who do not publish any cheap edi-
tions,' cnuplain that these cheap books are
to he found even III the houses of wealthy
people. who would not hesitate to pay $50
for single chair Why should they not bea
Ii j. hamrly old saving, but very true one,
that what j. SaHce for the goose is sauce for
the garlcr The publishers will not paw in
Amerira for what they can get for nothing
in England; why then, should readers pay 50
for what they can buy for twenty cents?
do not heheve. however, that the cheap books
Interfere with the sale Of well bound, hand
n mn
rather hcp the sale of any book that is worth
preserving
THE ms AND OUTS.
4 almost suspect, | told him, "that YOU
must have been i'll the publishing business
yourself at some time or other
No. have not he replied; "but | have a
friend who is a publisher, and so perhaps
know more Of the ins and-outs of the business
than | otherwise should think the cheap
editions help along good books in this way:
they give readers chance TO buy and exam
inc them in the cheap form, and then if they
prove 70 I've worth preserving the reader buys
a bound copy fer hls library when most
likely he would not have bought it if he had
not read it This, of course, is looking at the
matter from the publishers standpoint For
the public ! think the cheap editions are a
great boon They give everybody an oppor-
tunitv tn keep informed Of the literature OF
the day at small cost. Even the bows are
reading them Not long ago. if | called al
office bov would see him stuffing some mis-
cradle dime novel, Indian story or one of the
iiashy boys papers into his pocket now fire.
quently see them reading books of a much
higher class. because they are equally cheaI
and equally interesting. even. to boy with
anv brains II cheap works by good authors
can drive nut the wretrhed stuff that TIA:
heretofore been sold to boys and girls in hi.
country that alone Is sufficient excuse for
their existence. | can tell you of another
! good work they are doing"
What is thatET asked
"They are disgusting people with the nsuse
ating Sir Charles and Lady Glare Marble
Hall tvpe of novel. III which impossible peo
pie who use ridicuously stilted language ar,
put in ridicuOusly impossible situations aDC
/ eventually marry and hive happily ever after
| ward Have yOn not noticed that very few
| comparatively few-of such books ar,
| printed now. 1t is because the cheap edl
| tons have given people such dose of them
| The ordinary reader can stand so much o
! that thing and no more. And the publisher
are not slow in finding out what there is de
| mand for and what there is not Perhaps
| few love sick girls still read such novels, bu
! hardly anybody else. 1t was only neeessar,
| for people to have good dose of them, ant
| they have had itr-Wm. Drysdale in New
York Times.